It has emerged this evening that the current state of mental health services in the country is at wholly unacceptable levels, with SIPTU describing it as “crippled and staff within it demoralised.”
SIPTU and HSE officials will meet soon to discuss issues like recruitment and retention of staff within mental health nursing services.
According to SIPTU, staffing levels within the public health system were reduced by more than 5,000 between 2009 and 2014. Furthermore, there are currently 600 vacancies within mental health nursing services, with this number likely to increase after retirements.